


A crew for a brave new world

by TheArrow



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Drabbles, F/F, Gen, Interspecies Awkwardness, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 01:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArrow/pseuds/TheArrow
Summary: First meeting.





	

Vetra heard from Sid within the hour after the Hyperion showed up out of the depths of dark space. By the time she was able to verify that that their Pathfinder survived, she’d already put all of her affairs in order and arranged to rent her one-room lodgings on the Nexus to an engineer she more or less trusted from Kesh’s team. She doesn’t waste a single minute before pinging Kallo and Gil, and made sure that whatever they’ll need to pull the bird out of storage, they’ll come to Vetra first.

 _I need off this station_ , she thought to herself as she packed her bags with the few belongings she owned. Most of what she packed were her weapons, and her vast collection of weapon mods—and food. What she had in terms of civilian belongings, she could leave in Sid’s care, to either keep or to trade. She’d probably call Sid from the Tempest later, after her shift ends. In the meantime, and while she was away, she trusted Kesh to keep an eye on her sister.

For the first time in many, many months she felt a tug in her chest and a bounce in her step. With the Nexus on lockdown, she’d been grounded for months, and with the Scourge out there and the lack of trade, many of her contacts have fallen out of touch almost completely, their lives moving on even as those left behind on the Nexus feel like time has stopped.

If there was anything Vetra hated, it was feeling irrelevant. Sid didn’t need a babysitter anymore (hadn’t for a long time, said an annoying voice in the back of her mind that sounded suspiciously like her sister’s) and Vetra needed to get back into space. Moving was what she did best—moving cargo, information, anything. A smuggler wasn’t much good stuck on a station in orbit with no ships going in or out. The Nexus was a mess, its leadership a toxic clusterfuck. It was time.

She was done packing her bags. She had one sack for her things that she could throw over her shoulder, the kind Sid and her used to use when they would move place to place, following wherever Vetra had to go for work. She also had a couple of small crates of food, as well. It would not hurt to be a little over-prepared, especially since she wouldn’t be able to eat the alien food on the Tempest.

She shot one last sweeping look over her now empty quarters, and closed the light before closing the door behind her, leaving it for good. 

* * *

The Tempest was undeniably a beautiful ship. She found a free room on the starboard side of the cargo bay that she could use as an office or workshop of sorts, and claimed a bunk in the communal living quarters by dumping her bag on it. Gil and Kallo greeted her warmly, not really giving her a second glance, but Suvi balked at the presence of the tall turian lady when she came into the cargo bay.

“Do you have permission from central command to be on board, Vetra Nyx?” She said wonderingly, checking her omni-tool for the Tempest’s official roster. Something about the way the translator programs in Vetra’s omni-tool translated her human accent always produced an interesting lilting sound to Vetra’s ear, and she often wondered why this particular human accent affected the translators so.

“If you mean Addison or Tann, no, but Kesh knows I’m supposed to be here. Check with her.”

“Kesh’s authority has nothing to do with the Tempest’s or the Pathfinder’s mission, Vetra.”

Vetra sighed, before looking over at the flight engineer going over his manifest. “Gil,” she said smoothly, trying to appear distinctly unruffled, “Who got you access to those extra E-Zero condensers you needed to tinker with the back-up for the FTL drive today?”

Gil looked up from his manifest, an eyebrow raised. “You know perfectly well that that was you, Nyx.”

“And Kallo!” Vetra called out again, raising her voice just a little. The pilot, who had just left the cargo bay to return to the living quarters, replied via the ship’s overhead communications.

“Yes, Vetra?”

“When you needed to make sure that nobody from the mutiny touched the Tempest, who did you come to?”

“You know the answer to that question, Vetra.” The salarian answered shortly but with a touch of amusement in his voice.

“Suvi,” Vetra continued, just a tad quieter, as she turned to re-address the human. “I need to be on this ship. I did speak to Kesh and she agrees that my contacts on the Nexus and off the Nexus would be of great use to the Pathfinder. I don’t mean to impose and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that my presence here is useful and beneficial.”

Suvi’s face softened. “Right. Sorry. I’m just a little antsy is all. Getting ready to launch, and everything. It finally feels like everything is back on schedule and I was just looking forward to doing this by the book. I didn’t mean to be overly rigid.”

Vetra nodded. “Of course, Suvi. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate, all right?”

The human science officer nodded, and went back to checking that her lab equipment had arrived and was in order. Vetra walked over to the starboard-side room, and started setting up her communication equipment and connecting it to the ship’s systems.

Once she was sure she would not be overheard, Vetra opened up her omni-tool and recorded a quick message: “Kesh. Vetra here. If you need me, I’m going to be on the Tempest assisting the human Pathfinder. I didn’t exactly ask for permission, so I’m hoping you can smooth the way for me if anybody starts asking questions. And I’ll owe you big time.”

She closed the recorder program, ran an encryption algorithm that she knew Kesh had an updated key for, and sent off the audio recording. Kesh would play ball—a perplexing but funny expression she’d picked up from the human population on the Nexus—and would look after Sid.

An alert flashed on her omni-tool, and a recording of Kallo’s voice played at a subdued but clear tone. Vetra smiled slightly. It seemed like the pilot had already added her omni-tool’s comlink information to the ship’s crew communications list, which, as far as Vetra was concerned, cemented her place on the ship.

**Announcement to the crew of the Tempest. Ryder is on her way to the docking bay. Departure imminent. All hands should be ready to depart now.**

Vetra couldn’t help a mandible-widening grin as she dismissed the message. She was a crew member of the Tempest, all right. And that felt like something real. 


End file.
